Isaac Slade, lead singer of The Fray, watches Monday as Gov. John Hickenlooper plays guitar at the Capitol. Slade and Hickenlooper are leading Take Note Colorado, an initiative to support and expand music education for schoolchildren.

When I was 9, I was herded into my public school’s music program, handed a trombone, and I quit two months later. When I was 12, I saw the movie “That Thing You Do!”, asked my mom to order me a guitar from the JCPenney catalog, and I haven’t been without a guitar or music since.

While I commend Gov. John Hickenlooper and the Colorado Music Coalition for focusing on access to music and music education, I fear that they might go about it the wrong way and do more harm than good. I would hate for thousands of Colorado kids to be put off of music because they thought it was just another boring class they had to sit through in school.

Andrew VanOrsdale,Broomfield

Does anyone remember when Denver Public Schools offered piano lessons for a nominal fee to students? I taught in that program part-time at several DPS schools. I always had a big recital at the end of the year for parents and fellow students, and regardless of the level of ability, it was a great morale booster and fun to be on the stage performing for proud parents and fellow students.

But the best of all was when I taught at the Evans School, where students with different degrees of deafness attended alongside neighborhood students. I came away from that convinced the degree of deafness had nothing to do with sense of rhythm. For beginning students, I played with them as a duet. The smile on their faces and the sense of achievement as they gave a curtsy or a bow for their performance on the stage of the auditorium was a thing to behold!

Patricia Sandstedt,Denver

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